scientious; and now that
he had him under his thumb, he made superhuman efforts to understand his
nephew's character and to win his confidence. The poor gentleman might
just as well have tried to understand the character of an asymptote, or
to win the confidence of a Will-o'-the-wisp; and nothing but misery can
come of it when a middle-aged city merchant, born without even a
rudimentary sense of humour, suddenly determines to cultivate that gift
for the benefit of a boy who can detect humour in the wording of an
invoice.

Well, he never knew how it happened--his mind might have been running on
an illustrated edition of the cash accounts of Messrs. Pigott & Co.--but
at last Ted made an arithmetical blunder so unprecedented, so
astounding, that a commercial career was closed to him for ever.
"Stupidity is excusable," said Uncle James. "If you had been stupid, I
would have forgiven you; but you have ability enough, sir, and it
follows that you are careless--criminally careless--and I wash my hands
of you." And, like Pilate, he suited the action to the word.

So it happened that as Katherine was putting the last touches to her
great picture "The Witch of Atlas," and to her sketch of an elaborate
future, Fate stepped in and altered all her arrangements. She called it
Fate, for she never could bring herself to say it was Ted. For months
she had been living in a dream, in which she was no longer a poor artist
toiling in a London garret: she was on the highest peak of Atlas, in the
land where, as you know, dreams last forever, where the light comes down
unfiltered through the transcendental air, and where, owing to the
unmelting ice and snow, the shadows are always colours. To live for art
and by art--she had not yet realised the incompatibility of these two
aims; for Katherine was as uncompromising in this as in everything else,
and refused to work in a liberal and enlightened spirit. She believed
that beauty is the only right or possible or conceivable aim of the
artist, and she was ready to sacrifice a great deal for this belief. For
this she slept and worked in one room, which she left bare of all but
necessary furniture--under which head, in defiance of all laws of
political economy, she included a small Pantheon of plaster deities: for
this she stinted herself in everything except air and exercise, which
were cheap; and for this she refused to join housekeeping with her
cousin Nettie, thereby giving lasting offence to an